Private Web Search with Tiptoe
RSA Conference 2024 · Track Session
In an era where personal data is increasingly valuable and vulnerable, the privacy implications of everyday online activities, particularly web search, are profound. Alexandra Henzinger's talk at RSAC 2024, "Private Web Search with Tiptoe," introduces a groundbreaking prototype for a private web search engine designed to protect user queries from the search engine itself. This research addresses a critical vulnerability: current large-scale search engines, by their very nature, must see a user's query to return relevant results, leading to the accumulation of vast amounts of sensitive personal data. This data is a prime target for breaches, resale, and training AI models that could inadvertently expose private information.